Well we have a blog!

We should have started this over a year ago really, when every experience was new (and weird!), when we couldn't tell if the chewy thing we were eating was a) squid, b) raw chicken, c) jellyfish, d) some odd seaweed that smelled fishy (or chickeny) or e) none of the above.

It's been a year already and in some ways time has flown by. We've grown used to women in tight miniskirts and stilettos with a cellphone in one hand, an umbrella in the other, a Prada bag, five layers of carefully mismatched tank tops and t-shirts, and shoulder-high gloves to protect them from the sun, riding their bicycles (and cutting in in front of cars!) in rush-hour traffic.

We have learned to discern the chicken from the seafood, and to tell the cab driver where to go without risk of getting hopelessly lost (sometimes we don't even need to tell the cabbie three times where we're going and still get to the right destination!).

We've also learned to start every sentence with "sumimasen" (the magic word that literally means I'm sorry). Don't know why, but if you apologize before you say anything else, things happen to go much smoother.

We've learned the seemingly impossible task of sorting garbage into the 1001 categories it could fit into and have never had to endure the shame of having it returned to us (don't laugh, this has happened to other expats).

Other things haven't gone so well. For example, the language is still an uphill battle on (very!) slippery terrain. Driving requires passing a driving test, which I (Sil) have managed to flunk not once but twice! And ordering off a Japanese menu is still a risky adventure that people who don't ABSOLUTELY love every kind of imaginable seafood are better off avoiding altogether...

On the upside, I've managed to lose a few pounds and Kumar's cooking skills have improved to the point that he has been giving cooking lessons and has a cult following that has named itself the Curry Club. If you are wondering whether I may be embellishing see for yourself!


Well enough for a first try... I even managed to post a picture! Stay tuned for more news from Hiroshima. I'll try to get my co-author to write next time.

In the meantime, you can check out the links to some of the many many many pictures I've been taking in the last year (all the links are on the right side of this page). And yes, there's even a few images of Kumar.